Confessing Christ on Campus Since 1517

By Rev. Marcus Zill

The college campus has always been a melting pot of ideas and a place to debate and discover truth. It is also no secret that the worldviews of many young Lutherans are shaped, or reshaped, between the ages of eighteen to twenty-five on college campuses. Ask any campus pastor. More students lose their faith than are strengthened in the faith during their college years.

There is genuine concern in the Church to want to keep our young people in the faith at this formative time in their life. There is also a genuine need for the Church to have a presence in the public square and at such incubators of ideas as our public institutions of higher learning.

Clearly confessing the truth of Jesus Christ on a university campus is nothing new for Lutherans. After all, the Lutheran Church was born on the academic turf of a German university at Wittenberg when a young man named Martin Luther challenged the religious and campus community with his 95 Theses. Yes, you could say, Martin Luther was a campus pastor!

The Lutheran Church cannot escape the campus. Throughout her history she has not forsaken the campus.The need is too great.

As the campus ministry arm of Higher Things, Christ on Campus seeks to help young people mature in their faith at one of the most formative and crucial times of their lives and while they acquire the learning and useful skills necessary for life lived “in” but not “of” the world around them.

The college campus also provides us with a challenging training ground where young people may be equipped to live as faithful confessors of Jesus Christ and His Word. Like Athens of Acts 17, the university is a place permeated with religion. It is not a matter of religion being on campus but which religion it is! Our young people will be ministered to, but ministered with what, and ministered to by whom?

The flat out anti-Christian attitude that exists on most campuses today is a powerful tool of Satan. Even the most grounded will find their faith tested. Those who are not incorporated in the life of the Church on campus will be incorporated elsewhere.That is ultimately the challenge.

We believe that campus ministry should not exist to serve as a Campus Crusade chapter with a Lutheran twist or as just another organization among many to provide students with free pizza. Pizza is great, but it isn’t the Gospel! The answer also doesn’t lie in some watered down generalized ecumenical involvement either, which is so common on our campuses, nor is the answer written in some new program or gimmick. The answer is just where it has always been—in Christ’s Word and His Gospel gifts.

We at Christ on Campus seek to help our Lutheran college students remain rooted in Christ’s gifts and provide them with opportunities to deepen their knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and Lutheran doctrine at such a formative period in their lives. We want to encourage college students to apply their learning to their vocation to live in Christ by faith and in their neighbor by love. Such opportunities are boundless.

We believe that this life of God’s people on campus begins and flows from the Divine Service. Our Lord’s gifts enliven and sustain even in an environment that is often hostile to the truth of the faith we confess. Thus, in a culture marked by pluralism, we have a unique opportunity to confess that Jesus Christ alone is “the way, the truth, and the life.” In an age of relativity, we can also gladly confess the reliability of our Lord’s words, the truth and certainty of His promises.

Of course, this separates us from almost every other philosophy of campus ministry. Needless to say, it was the same in Wittenberg when Dr. Luther posted the 95 theses calling God’s people back to a commitment to the truth of God’s Word.

We seek to help our young people to dare to be Lutheran where God has placed them. We believe that campus ministry serves our college students and the university community best by simply being the Church. What is most profitable for college students before and after college is precisely what is most profitable for them during college!

This may seem pretty obvious, but it is easily forgotten. Such was the case in Wittenberg. The church in Wittenberg had forgotten who and what it was, why it was there, and what Christ had given it. Before long, the church became something other than what it was meant to be. And with such a shift came a movement away from that which was originally being taught and believed. That’s why the Reformation was so important. Luther was attempting to bring the church back to the Gospel, back to Jesus. And that’s what we believe that Lutheran campus ministries should also seek to do: to bring God’s gifts of mercy to those in college.

We invite you to learn more about Christ on Campus and how you can help us help others dare to be Lutheran on campus. We look forward to providing this column and its related news and information in each issue of Higher Things to help you do just that.

May God bless us all as we seek to confess Christ on Campus, just like Lutherans have been doing since 1517.

Rev. Marcus Zill is the full-time campus pastor at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church and Campus Center in Laramie, Wyoming. He is the Executive of Christ on Campus and the coordinator for The Feast in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His e-mail address is zill@higherthings.org.